This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2016/11/30/sports-rush-the-fine-art-of-sport/
Ballet is a sports credit. At my nieces’ school, a student can use
regular instruction in that traditional dance form to fulfill his or her
sports requirement.
So it’s a sports credit. But is it a sport?
This column started because my 14-year old niece, who receives her
own activity credits through volleyball, basketball, and tennis,
insisted “Ballet is NOT a sport. It’s a fine art” (ALL CAPS were hers).
This declaration came pursuant to a discussion on the matter with a
classmate who disagreed because of how much physical exertion ballet
demands. And indeed, I don’t think there’s too much argument that
vigorous dance indeed carries many of the same fitness benefits as, say,
stick-and-ball sports. But, yeah, is pirouetting and pliéing a sport?
Ballet offers competition for roles, so participants do experience
some of the same pressures as an athlete trying to make the varsity.
Teamwork would also seem a necessity in executing complicated dance
maneuvers involving multiple cast members. But if you define a sport as
needing a winner and loser (or at least some uncertainty in the
outcome), as my niece contended, then choreographed routines don’t
qualify. We all know how The Nutcracker turns out (spoiler : the prince
gets the girl, like every other fairy tale).
Except, actually, while a pursuit might not have originally been
designed as a sport, perhaps it can become one. In fact, competitive
people will make a game of anything. Sure enough, ballet competitions abound worldwide (without
agreement in the dance world about whether they are a good thing). Is
it a huge step from ballet to figure skating? And that’s in the
Olympics, which has a number of events whose outcomes rest on the
decisions of the judges – kind of like Dancing with the Stars does.
We’re actually pretty good at taking stuff that its originators never
dreamed would be a sport and turning it into one. Cheerleading never
seemed like a sport, but then it morphed into Cheer and now it overruns
convention centers with sparkly competitors trying to execute the best
pyramids and dance numbers. And, yes, its organizers do want to get
Cheer into the Olympic Games.
We can take sports the other way, too. Wrestling, an original Olympic sport (as in 776 B.C. original) nearly got booted from the games before an uproar fueled its reinstatement.
Part of its problem is that the best-known form of wrestling is not a
sport at all, but a show staged to look like a competition.
Pastimes like golf, bowling, chess, and auto racing have generated
controversy about whether or not they constitute true sports. The debate
constantly widens. How shall we treat eSports and drone racing? J.K.
Rowling made up a sport and now people attempt to play quidditch
without magic. By the way, speaking of chess, Wizard Chess could make a
pretty good argument for being a sport. Expect the FIEM (Fédération
Internationale des Échecs Magicien) to petition for a place in the next
muggle Olympics.
Whether or not it’s a sport, ballet is for sure classified as a
“fine” art. Some other blogger can take on the question of what is and
isn’t fine, or, as the Old 97’s put it, “What’s so fine about art?”
Meanwhile, the next time you pursue an activity that involves some
degree of motion or competition, ask yourself, “Is what I just did a
sport?” The answer might surprise you.
Beer pong, anyone?
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative
efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad
campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports
entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine
Productions.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
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